An Orlando man who treated pandemic unemployment benefits like his own personal jackpot is headed to federal prison for six years and three months. A jury found 36-year-old Dexter Ray King guilty of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme prosecutors say funneled more than half a million dollars in pandemic unemployment money into accounts he controlled.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, evidence at trial showed King filed dozens of fraudulent Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims across several states using stolen identities and fake addresses. Prosecutors said he also submitted claims in his own name using Social Security numbers that did not belong to him, then had the benefits mailed or directly deposited into accounts he controlled…